I pulled into my pool hall on a hot summer day a long time ago. I left both windows down due to the heat index and I had my old Meucci sitting in the front seat.
After talking to a few folks in the pool hall, time had slipped away from me and I started to get stressed out about the fact that my cue was sitting on the front seat of my car in plain sight and not the best end of town.
I ran out to my car to check on things and to my amazement.....there were now TWO Meuccis in the front seat.......
I do know way back meuccis were the overwhelming choice of the pros, I got my first muecci in the early 90's and HATED IT, as a matter of fact out of the dozens and dozens of cues I have owned and played it is by far my least fav to this day. All a matter of opinion but this is mine.
By the early 90's, Meucci had a lot of competition, so there was a lot to compare them to, but when they first came out, they were truly innovative. Before that, the typical cues had stainless steel joints and ivory ferrules and hit like tuning forks.
I just put a tip on a Huebler HA tonight, probably a late 80s cue. Both shafts and butt straight and plays pretty nice.
Used to be able to get them for 4 or 5 hundred. I'd much rather have one of these than any new production cue made today.
The early 90's is when I came on the scene. I had a meuccii early on. Didn't like it. Had a bunch more cues, while I still had the meucci. Didn't like it then, dont like it now - nor no where in between. Sorry. Just not my thing.
They represent a "Poor mans collectable". Few are ever going to own a Balabushka or Szamboti but they can have an old Meucci or Joss affordably.
I have some bad news... in no particular order
1. Some people who sell things are going to "HYPE" them DUH... get over it
The point of my post is to balance out the sales pitch, which is often the only thing we hear on this site. You may very well be aware of the fact that these claims are all part of sales pitches etc..but a young, inexperienced player may actually think that these are factual posts. I just thought it might be nice to offer some balance.
2. Some vintage production cues do indeed "play" better than their current counterparts... and some don't
This is true when it comes to individual cues, but I don't believe there are systematic differences in favour of the older ones. If anything, the newer ones are often better.
3. People who are willing to pay a premium for a vintage cue may very well be
motivated by more than just how it plays
If you read my post you'd see that I actually acknowledged this. My post was purely adressing the playability claim.
4 and so on...
Dale
The general vote is in and it's been discussed before many times........The Schon cues from the 80's are judged as the best made Schon cues.....better than the later years.....
just search the threads about the cues that Bob Runde made versus Evan Clarke, not that Evan isn't a talented cue-maker but the Schons that Bob made just play better. The
hit feels better.......and I've compared well over 50 Schon cues over the past 30 years and the original R series of cues from Schon was outstanding.
Matt B.
My take on any old stuff is: old means cheap.
And: there is no value in something old from a certain manufacturer, but only if this piece has a certain character no other thing has.
The market fortunately is dead :grin:
I like the analogy of 70's-80's production cue's to 60's Muscle cars crazy increase in values. They are going to become more valuable if you have a good one.
Allot of 'Boomers' might want to go back in time and will pay for the opportunity even though the cars of today are light years ahead in performance, handling and overall value.
I like old cues. I have a beautiful 70's vintage 4 pointer ADAM that was sent out for re-finish. Builder informed me that it was produced at a time when Helmstetter was using Titleist's for blanks until his stash ran short. He wanted to buy it from me. I passed. Nice $25 Flea market find:groucho:
Have a good day,
-Kat,